Program Overview

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Business and Financial Management via Study Centres BA (Hons)

Overview

Gain a world-class undergraduate degree in business and financial management from a British university without leaving your own country. Financial management is an essential part of any successful business. This course will teach the framework of managing business finances. It can also be the first step to qualification as an accountant.

Why us?

• The Sunderland Business School is a member of ‘The Association of Business Schools’
• We've been shortlisted for Business School of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards 2024

Course structure

Teaching methods include lectures, seminars, debates, tutorials, and workshops. You'll be encouraged to develop independent study skills. Throughout the course, the focus is on innovative learning by doing and reflecting. You'll take part in problem-based learning, where you work within a small team to explore issues or decide how to manage a situation. This helps you to dissect, challenge, and debate issues.

Your progress will be assessed with business simulations, presentations, reports, essays, tests, and time-constrained assessments.

Course modules

Year 1 (national level 4):

• Essential Study and Employment Skills (20 credits)
  • Gain the key study skills that are critical to your academic development and success. Develop your understanding and appreciation of the importance of transferable employability skills, as well as the importance of engaging in opportunities to develop personally at university and beyond.
• Introduction to Marketing (20 credits)
  • Gain an introduction to the concept of marketing and identify the role it plays in our every day lives, whether that be the products and services we use, the price we pay, or how we’re communicated to. Explore how organisations look to build relationships with their customers to ensure mutual satisfaction and value is received.
• Introduction to Human Resource Management and Talent Development (20 credits)
  • Examine how the effective deployment of human resources is essential to an organisation’s survival and growth through the cornerstones of human resource management practice, namely the key aspects of the HR cycle. Explore key concepts of recruiting and selecting, development, motivation, performance, rewards, and retention. Focus is placed on the use of theoretical best practice models and how they translate in reality to the workplace.
• Introduction to Accounting and Finance (20 credits)
  • Explore and investigate the three key areas within the field of accounting and finance including financial accounting, management accounting, and business finance. Learn the role and importance of how financial information can be utilised by managers and external users within the decision-making process. Create and analyse key financial statements, understand the range of account options used by internal managers, and gain knowledge of various financing techniques that can be used to ensure business success.
• Introduction to Managing and Leading People (20 credits)
  • Gain an introduction to the concepts of managing and leading people within an organisational context. Acquire an understanding of the role of managers and leaders in leading and managing the human aspects within the global organisational arena. Explore the key management and leadership activities associated with managing change to impact positively on organisational performance.
• Introduction to Business Operations and Services (20 credits)
  • Explore the key processes and practices within businesses operations and services. Gain knowledge that will help define the nature of business operations and services by considering various aspects of quality, cost, and delivery. Learn how business operations are interrelated to other functions in business, for example, marketing, HR, and finance.

Year 2 (national level 5):

• Personal and Professional Development (20 credits)
  • Investigate the impact that your behaviour has upon your professional success. Engage with and reflect upon experiences and how they inform understanding of personal qualities that underpin your effectiveness. Use a structured environment to focus upon what it is that you want from the world of work and, just as importantly, to increase your chances of achieving it.
• Quality Management for Organisational Excellence (20 credits)
  • Develop the ability to apply the concept of excellence in an organisational context. Gaining new knowledge will support you in appraising the EFQM Excellence Framework (European Framework for Quality Management. Developing your ability to recognise the difference in relationships between enablers and results that support identification of underpinning theories of excellence, leading to summarising of how organisations can be assessed using the excellence framework.
• Business Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability (ERS) (20 credits)
  • Explore the various moral issues and dilemmas facing businesses in an era when people, governments, and media expect them to demonstrate responsible actions, ethical behaviour, and sustainable practices. Review personal values and reflect on how these might apply to businesses. Use case studies to investigate moral issues faced by firms today, examine the diversity of business environments they face, and contemplate the dilemmas they experience when doing business abroad.
• Financial Reporting for Business (20 credits)
  • Immerse yourself fully in financial reporting with this module. Develop new ideas for the key elements of international financial reporting and create financial statements. Discuss ideas around current ethical issues, produce group accounts, and gain new knowledge of current practices within the industry.
• Management Accounting for Business (20 credits)
  • Understand the importance of decision-making by a manager around the subject of management accounting issues, ensuring that you as a future manager have the information you need to plan and control the direction of your organisation. Explore how management accounting information can be used within a business to improve the quality of a manager’s decisions by examining the nature and purpose of a business. Explore a variety of topics related to management accounting within the concept of decision-making by managers.
• Fundamentals of Business Finance (20 credits)
  • Learn the instrumental role business finance plays within the world of today’s global business organisation. Create an understanding and knowledge of the differing options available to businesses when considering raising finance to fund investment and growth. Explore a range of differing theories relating to business finance which will enable you to analyse and evaluate whether these can be successfully applied within the modern day business environment.

Optional 48-week placement:

• Applied Professional Practice (120 credits)
  • Gain a strong understanding of a business including the identification and examination of an organisational issue, initiative or process. Examine areas of value to the host organisation. Develop the relevant practical knowledge and skills under the guidance and supervision of an academic mentor and host business.

Year 3 (national level 6):

• Developing the Reflexive Practitioner (20 credits)
  • Consider, diagnose, and express your professional behaviours and values as an aspiring manager and leader in finance, marketing, human resources, or management. Examine the module leader’s research which includes the ‘Developing the Reflexive Practitioner’ toolkit, a web-based guide for developing as professionals in the increasingly complex world of management. Present your reflections as podcasts or vlogs, or as digital reflections.
• Strategic Corporate Finance (20 credits)
  • Develop a critical understanding of the role and importance of strategic corporate finance within the modern-day international business organisation. Gain a robust understanding of various corporate finance concepts and theories including market efficiency, different forms of debt and equity, investment appraisal, dividend policy, capital structure, and mergers and acquisitions. Expand your analytical and evaluative skills through and investigation and application of how relevant corporate finance techniques can be deployed strategically by financial managers to ensure future business success.
• Strategic Management Accounting (20 credits)
  • Consider a range of strategic management accounting tools. Explore the concept of financial decision making within a firm with a view of maximising profits and ensuring a sustainable future for the organisation in a digital world.
• International Financial Reporting (20 credits)
  • Focus on IFRS Standards and how firms implement them in their decision-making. Research current developments of IFRS Standards and their influence on practice of transnational accounting entities, different jurisdictions, and countries. Develop your research skills, critical analysis, ability to synthesise information from a wide range of sources, and cover the regulatory framework, preparation, and presentation of financial statements.
• Money, Banking and Finance (20 credits)
  • Learn how the banking and finance industry transfers money through time, supports economic output, contributes to maintaining stable inflation rates, allows customers to manage risks, and more. Develop skills in numerous economic and business scenarios, promoting confidence when discussing and analysing money, banking, and finance issues. Explore the banking industry’s role within a well-functioning financial system.
• Corporate Governance and Ethics (20 credits)
  • Understand the important themes in corporate governance and ethics. Discuss specific topics such as corporate sustainability reporting and assurance, integrated reporting, and responsible investment. Adopt an international comparative perspective by focusing upon the system found in the UK and contrasting this with a range of different corporate governance systems in countries around the world.

Facilities

Contact the Study Centre directly for information on facilities and location.

Entry requirements

Our typical offer is:

• Qualification | Minimum grade
  • Irish Leaving Certificate | 112 UCAS points – Students must have H1-H7 or O1-O4 in Maths & English.
  • QQI/FETAC 5 | Pass profile overall. For entry we also require H1-H7 or O1-O4 in Maths and English from Irish Leaving Certificate.

If you don't meet our standard entry requirements, you can take one of the foundation pathways at our partners ONCAMPUS Sunderland. Find out more information and whether your course is eligible on our ONCAMPUS page.

If your qualification is not listed above, please contact the Student Administration team at for further advice.

Please contact the study centre for more information on their specific requirements and equivalent qualifications from outside the UK.

Is your qualification not displaying here? For international qualifications, search our full list of international entry requirements for this course.

Fees and finance

Please contact the relevant study centre for information about tuition fees and scholarships.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

Career ready

When you graduate from this course, you’ll be ready to take on a position managing finances and accounts in a wide variety of organisations. You may also wish to become a qualified accountant. Some of the companies which employ our graduates include Microsoft, IBM, Nike, Adidas, P&G, Lloyds Bank, Marriott Hotels, and the NHS.